Nokia board chairman Risto Siilasmaa went on a Finnish television show, and stated that while he is confident in Windows Phone 8, the company does have a back-up plan if it doesn't work out. Speculation aplenty - what is this backup plan? The answer's pretty easy, if you ask me.

No, I am just talking about the device overall. When you turn on your PS3 you get a different UI then when you unlock your Sony Android Phone. So I don't believe there is a consistency between these two devices.

When you turn on your Xbox, Windows 8 PC and unlock your Windows Phone 8 device they (will) have very similar and consistent UIs.

Well, ever used a iPhone for a longer time? Consistency is not what sells them. I found it by myself one of the most inconsistent products ever. Not only the UI but the whole handling. Just compare where the applications are placing the "back" button to get an idea how worse that is. And yet it sells well. Consistency is not everything and that alone gives you nothing. Remember that WP7 was rather consistent unlike Win CE and yet sold far more worse the CE.

For WinARM vs WinDesktop: The difference is in the eco-system. You cannot run a classic WinDesktop application on WinARM. That means the whole existing Windows ecosystem is not there for there new WinARM productline.

It even becomes more worse in terms of UI and consistency between WinARM and WinDesktop. Remember that Metro is a whole NEW UI concept. Its so different from the classic Windows and all existing applications (that still continue to run on WinDesktop) that you can hardly speak of any consistency here. You may have that if you are using only the Microsoft applications like IE and ... (is there something else?). But you definitively do not have it when using a Windows8 Desktop with 3th party applications and WinARM. The consistency is just not there. Think MSOffice 2007 Ribbon vs IE Metro vs WinAmp vs Photoshop. That is even more the case for games which usually are by design different to other games (I do not only speak of look and feel but also of e.g. in-game options, widgets and handling).

Consistency? Only as long as you use 100% metro-only applications. That will take years and maybe never happen for most of the power-software for WinDesktop and even if it does, I doubt 3th party vendors are investing into porting from win32 to Metro APIs to reach the WinARM market which is, in its current form, below 2% marketshare and hence absolute uninteresting. Without the big vendors doing the expensive ports WinARM and with it WindowsPhone will continue to suffer from high-quality applications, will continue to sell "below expectations" and will continue to be an uninteresting target to invest into.

3th party vendors are more going into porting there products AWAY from WinDesktop-only. They like to offer Android, i-phone AND WinARM versions. So, when investing into the WinARM-port (which is so different to WinDesktop that its basically like porting to another platform - well, it is another platform!) then they are not going to stick with Windows only. Why should they?

That situation, where the own ecosystem forces its partners to port to competing ecosystems, is hand-made by Microsoft. The Metro vs win32 API differences are the biggest mistake they ever did. In all those years Microsoft keeping API- (and even ABI-!!!)compatibility was one of the major forces that protected the Microsoft ecosystem, that prevented vendors from doing any expensive ports. Now that Android and iPhone are such interesting markets (lots of money in there) and now that the API-compatibility is not more (well, you continue to have it if you stay with WinDesktop only ignoring WinARM, Andfroid, iPhone) Microsoft is killing of its ecosystem. They will suffer from this. Only a matter of time.

When you turn on your Xbox, Windows 8 PC and unlock your Windows Phone 8 device they (will) have very similar and consistent UIs.

I'm afraid those devices have very different use cases with very different screen sizes and interaction and you're going to be hard pushed to find anyone who wants or expects them to look the same.

If Microsoft believes as you do that this is a feather in their cap then they're going to be very disappointed - all over again. They have already been through many years of total failure where they vainly believed that having the start menu on a phone would have desktop users flocking to have Windows on their phones. I don't see anything that will change that.